They probably could, but I think it would brand them more then they care for.., there's far to many commercials running all over as it is, having it forced in your face while enjoying your online gaming would most certainly piss many people of.. Me included

A lot of people don't know how Patents can and are used. Let me elaborate:

A patent is an idea that is protected so that no one can copy your idea and implementation exactly. Just because a patent has been filed does not mean it will be put into practice. Sony came up with this idea and now have it protected under IP law. If any games company wants to put this kind of thing into their games, they will need to pay Sony to do it, so that is a plus for Sony. The plus for the game company is that they don't need to pay people to come up with the idea, and how to implement it will be documented on the patent itself, so all they have to do is apply it. Obviously the game company will then get revenue from the ads themselves.

There are hundreds of patents out there that have, and may never get implemented. Companies stockpile them because they aer incredibly lucrative. You can sell them, trade them, and use them as leverage in IP cases. eg, if company A infringes on company B's patents and company B then sues, it may be the case that company B is infringing on company A's patents as well.

This idea of ads popping up isn't centered primarily on the advertisement area, but more on how a 3rd party full screen message is displayed on a screen and how it is handled. I think it is a very good idea, and we will not see this implemented in any games to convey advertisements, as adding such a thing to a game would spell its death before release.

The idea is great from a business standpoint, but one of the worst ideas ever from a gamer standpoint.

And while I like to say this would make all future Sony hardware stillborn (because no gamer in their right mind wants to be interrupted in the middle of a game to see an ad about male enhancement or laundry detergent) I'm not sure if I could make that claim with how mainstream gaming has become as of late.

Everyone is saying it's there to screw over paying customers, but it could let sony bring a free-to-play or freemium (pay a tenner to get rid of ads) model to home consoles, which could be a good thing. Though I'll admit the implementation looks obnoxious...

Everyone is saying it's there to screw over paying customers, but it could let sony bring a free-to-play or freemium (pay a tenner to get rid of ads) model to home consoles, which could be a good thing. Though I'll admit the implementation looks obnoxious...

No, it would be a horrible way of doing that. PSN already has DCUO, Free Realms, and I'm not sure what else on it for F2P MMO's. Dust 514 is coming soon as well and will be F2P. Steam hosts tons of F2P MMO's. None of those platforms/services need to run ads in the middle of your gameplay because they take a small cut of all microtransactions.

It wouldn't be there to "screw over paying customers", it would be there to be another source of revenue generation.